BERLIN – 17th to 20th Oct.

Back to a ‘modern city’. The train ride was interesting to say the least. Prior to leaving Julie found an interesting statement about the trains in Poland. To para-phrase; ‘Sometimes trains get cancelled in Poland for no reason what-so-ever’! Hmmmm!  Fortunately ours did not. There was, however a remarkable difference in speed and comfort as the train crossed from Poland into Germany, a clear indication of the difference in maintenance between the two countries. As for the rail station here in Berlin.........

The station has 5 LEVELS of platforms and is bigger than some airports I've been in.

Our hotel room was crap! That’ll teach us not to look for the cheapest deal we could get! Serves us right.

I’m not sure if it was the silver vertical blinds or

the flowery wall-paper that did it.

It’s right out of the 70’s and just wrong! LOL

We just loved Berlin and I was especially impressed with the way they have ‘come to terms with the past. Being in Berlin meant we had a lot of contact with ‘the wall’ and its history.

Paid a visit to Checkpoint Charlie and got our passports stamped with the East/West/Russian sector stamps. Hopefully it isn’t illegal to do this otherwise we’ll be stuck in Europe forever!!!!

The existence of the wall is marked for its entire length by relevant markings on the roadway and paths.

We were in Berlin during the Festival of Light and got to see the Brandenburg Gate in a ‘normal’...........

.........and ‘spectacular’ setting.

The city really came alive during the evening and we had a great time out and about.

Off to Denmark next so will post from Copenhagen!